Beloved Syracuse Beacon
“Nonviolence is the weapon of the strong."
Mahatma Gandhi
ARCHIVE ENTRY: July 5, 2017
Action Alerts
This week in our work to transform Syracuse, eliminate poverty, and create equality:
ACTS Offers Alternatives to Violence Training For Free in Syracuse
July 14, 2017
Where: Dunbar Center, 1453 South State Street, Syracuse NY 13205, FROM JULY 14th-16th
Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a life-changing training program which teaches participants to transform conflict through methods of non-violence. AVP also inspires participants to pass their knowledge along to others in their lives, sometimes spurring first-timers to become leaders in the movement.
AVP’s participants often include inmates, gang members, social workers, and activists. Timothy Kirkland, a leader in this first Syracuse training, is himself a former-inmate who changed his life thanks to the AVP workshops he completed while at Attica prison.
For more information, click the button below:
ACTS Co-Sponsors More Candidate Forums: Including School Board
July 13, 2017
Thursday, July 13th, from 7:00pm-9:00pm, at Roberts School, 715 Glenwood Ave, Syracuse, NY 13207
ACTS and its partners are sponsoring two more candidate forums for elections in the Syracuse area. Offices up for election include the School Board, seats on the Judge’s bench, and the County Legislature. All these elections will have broad impacts on our livers here in Syracuse, and those of our children. Therefore, ACTS urges everyone to attend these public forums to help inform voting decisions.
The previous Forums held for the Mayoral Candidates and Common Council Candidates were terrific successes. On both occasions, Syracuse citizens learned how each candidate will address important issues, such as poverty. On July 13th we gather again to ask candidates of the Syracuse School Board about their stance on Syracuse’s future. With this knowledge, Syracuse will make the right choice. We'll see you there!
Anti-Detention and Deportation Rally at Regional Transport. Center
July 08, 2017
Where: Regional Transporation Center, from 8-9:00 AM, Address: Corner of Park Street and NTB Bank Parkway, Syracuse, NY
America is breaking its promises. Under Obama, thousands of law-abiding immigrant families were granted leniency from deportation. Since early 2017, however, 40,000 people have been detained, often for mere suspicion of illegal entry. Among those detained is a woman who fled from domestic violence in Mexico and found safety in the United States. Despite having applied for a Visa, and being an activist for her community, she now wears an electronic ankle bracelet and faces deportation. Other victims are an Indian man who lived in the US for decades, and a Mexican mother who was out shopping with her young, US-born daughter. These emboldened immigrant arrests are made under the pretense of "keeping America safe."
However, ICE arrests of noncriminal immigrants have nearly doubled since January. In places like New York City, law-abiding families are being detained at rates over three times as high as before 2017. At the pinnacle of hypocrisy, ICE arrests of immigrants with criminal records have concurrently dropped. American is breaking its promises, not only to these people, but to the philosophy of refuge etched onto the Statue of Liberty. If you are concerned by this, you are encouraged to participate at the rally on Saturday and make your voice be heard!
Spirit of America: Liberty. Diversity. Dignity.
June 30, 2017
When: June 30th-September 4th
"As the United States prepares to observe Independence Day, InterFaith Works of Central New York invites the public, organizations and faith communities to participate in its Spirit of America: Liberty, Diversity, Dignity project to celebrate the diversity of our country. The project will kick off the weekend of Friday, June 30 through Sunday, July 2; however, organizations that are unable to celebrate the Spirit of America that weekend may participate until Labor Day"~InterFaith Works
Weekly Community Events
If you are an ACTS Member Organization and have an upcoming social justice event please email Ryan Ivers at rivers2@oswego.edu
7-5-17
Weekly Stories
Together we came closer to our goals. Let's reflect on the vital work we have done:
Facing Race and Power Summit: Shaping a Renaissance of Equality
Silver Spring, Maryland was the site of the “Facing Race and Power” Summit, sponsored by ACTS’ national affiliate, Gamaliel. More than 160 people gathered from June 19th-21st to address racial injustices, visit lawmakers, and launch a rally at the Capitol District. Of those 160 people, three from ACTS were present: President David Babcock and two young men; Dominique Donnay, and Nas’zeik Metts. The Summit testified together that structural racism remains rampant.
ACTS and Allies Score Major Victory Against Youth Solitary Confinement
ACTS and its allies at the New York Civil Liberties Union and Legal Services of CNY recently announced a settlement with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office that ends the routine practice of 23-hour-a-day isolation of youth at the Syracuse Justice Center. The settlement is the accumulation of two years’ worth of work by ACTS and its allies against the abhorrently unjust system of youth solitary confinement.
Activists in the Grace Episcopal Church, an ACTS Member Organization, alerted ACTS in 2015 that youth were being held in solitary confinement for weeks at a time. This practice first was noticed in the Onondaga County Justice Center and the Jamesville Corrections Facility, but transferred with the youth to the Syracuse Justice Center. The landmark settlement obtained recently does not end solitary confinement, even within the Syracuse Justice Center, but it does drastically limit its usage in terms of 16 and 17-year-old youth. This is another important step in our mission to end the inhumane practice of solitary confinement, and to dismantle Mass Incarceration in all its forms. To learn more, click the button below and read the press release from the New York Civil Liberties Union:
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